Hobart City Council advances plan to restrict whole-home short-stay rentals

A plan to block Hobart property owners from converting their entire homes into short-stay accommodation has passed another milestone, with the local council voting to send the proposal off for final approval.

The proposal, which aims to restrict the creation of new short-stay accommodation in the city, was considered by the Hobart City Council (HCC) at its planning committee meeting on Wednesday.

The tweak to planning rules would block about 20,000 homes from being wholly converted into visitor accommodation, such as Airbnb or Stayz.

"The draft amendment delivers a clear net community benefit through improved housing outcomes while still allowing the visitor economy to be accommodated," council officers wrote.

"It was informed by extensive background analysis, including data on housing and rental markets, tourism trends, existing visitor accommodation supply and planning approvals."

More than 50 submissions were made while the plan was out for public consultation across June and July, with 15 supporting the amendment while 41 were in opposition.

The representations in support of the amendment focused largely on the impact that whole-home short stays have on the rental market, housing affordability, neighbourhood cohesion and the function of residential zoning.

Those against the amendment highlighted the benefits short stays have on the city's economy and tourism, their role in providing accommodation for workers and families, private property rights, investment certainty and the impact on small business owners.

The planning amendment will now be sent to the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC) for final approval, with the council anticipating a public hearing will be held.

Merrydith Callegari, who has been a short-stay rental host in Hobart for more than 10 years, addressed the planning committee ahead of the vote.

She was opposed to the amendment and called for an opportunity to work constructively with the council to develop a framework where short-term rental owners and the council could work together.

"Short-term rentals are a vital part of Tasmania's accommodation requirements, hosting is an economic lifeline for many hosts and related industries, they fill gaps that hotels can't, they give visitors a home," Ms Callegari said.

"I believe banning does not give the result you seek … we need to make building easier, to support landlords, not tear them down — after all, if renting is too hard, landlords will stop renting."

Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said cities all over the world were dealing with an increase in short-term rentals, while housing stock continued to fall short of demand.

"It's got to the stage where it's having a very significant impact on our rental market," she said.

"This is rental stock that's been basically turned into small hotels in our suburbs."

Cr Reynolds said the amendment was a "good compromise" and still allowed for permits in the CBD, while also not removing any existing permits.

"We have a higher penetration of short stays as a percentage of our rental market than I think any other capital city," she said.

Councillor Ben Lohberger supported the amendment and said whole-home short-stay rentals have filled some streets with "mini hotels".

"It's quite obvious to me that we do need some way to have discretion on whether we approve these and that's what this is about," he said.

"It's not about banning anything that exist, its not about banning every single future application; it's about giving the council the power to decide."

Alderman Marti Zucco said property owners should be able to do whatever they wanted with their homes.

"We should be listening to those representations we got and maybe instead sit down and see if we can find another way forward," Cr Zucco said.

Deputy Lord Mayor Zelinda Sherlock stressed that the amendment was not "about banning anything" and only applied to residential areas.

The restriction would apply to properties zoned as general residential, inner residential or low-density residential, which account for about 90 per cent of dwellings in Hobart.

The historic suburb of Battery Point, which is very popular for tourists, and Hobart's inner CBD would not be affected.

The councillors who voted in support of the proposal included Anna Reynolds, Ryan Posselt, Gemma Kitsos, Bill Harvey, Ben Lohberger, Mike Dutta and Zelinda Sherlock.

Those who voted against were Marti Zucco, Will Coats and Louise Bloomfield, while councillors Louise Elliot and John Kelly were not present.